Category: Plugins

I have completed the “update” process to my 5 of my plugins (WP-Polls, WP-PostRatings, WP-Email, WP-ServerInfo and WP-UserOnline) which use JavaScript.

WP-Polls and WP-PostRatings uses JavaScript on the frontend as well as the backend

WP-Email and WP-UserOnline uses JavaScript on the frontend only

WP-ServerInfo uses JavaScript on the backend only

Unfortunately the changes require at least WordPress 2.8 onwards to make use of the JavaScript enhancements in WordPress 2.8. I have updated this site to WordPress 2.8 Bleeding Edge aka WordPress 2.8 Nightly in order to test the JavaScript changes on a live site.

If you view the HTML source of this page, you will notice that only the CSS files get loaded in the header and the JavaScript gets loaded in the footer.

If you are running WordPress 2.8 bleeding edge, perhaps you can help me test out the plugins. Thanks in advanced 🙂

Only 5 of my plugins (WP-Polls, WP-PostRatings, WP-Email, WP-ServerInfo and WP-UserOnline) use JavaScript. The JavaScripts are packed using Dean Edward’s Packer and the only framework use just for AJAX is TW-Sack or Simple AJAX Code-Kit (SACK). TW-Sack is extremely lightweight and easy to use but unfortunately, it can be used only for AJAX purposes. The reason I used TW-Sack instead of jQuery is simple, at the time I created my plugin, jQuery does not exists yet and when jQuery becomes popular the reason why I didn’t upgrade it was because I was lazy. As the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Recently there is some buzz within the WordPress Development Team regarding WordPress’s JavaScript Usage. Andrew Ozz has written two articles on it in the WordPress Development Updates blog entitled Optimizing script loading, Optimizing script loading part 2 and Optimizing script loading, implementation. With the upcoming WordPress 2.8 will feature some heavy JavaScript changes, I told myself to make use of this chance to totally revamped the JavaScripts in my plugins. Here are the changes that will be made:

Minified JavaScript instead of packing them

Replaced TW-Sack with jQuery

Move JavaScript to the footer

Use wp_localize_script() for JavaScript text translation

javascript-js.js will now contain the minified code for normal usage

javascript-js.dev.js will now contain the unminified code for development purposes

I have already done it for WP-PostRatings and it is now running live on this site. Next, I will be doing WP-UserOnline, followed by WP-Email and lastly WP-Polls as it is more complex.

Here is my December 2008 WordPress plugins update containing all my 15 WordPress plugins update and 1 new WordPress plugin. All of them should work on WordPress 2.7 as I did not test them on any WordPress version below that.

I am introducing a new plugin called WP-CommentNavi which basically paginate your comments similar to how WP-PageNavi paginate your posts. I am also retiring WP-Sticky as WordPress 2.7 has a sticky post feature built in. WP-Sticky 2.31 WILL NOT work on WordPress 2.7 due to a conflict function “is_sticky”. If you renamed that function to “is_sticky2” or something else, it should work, but as usual I did not test it.

*UPDATE* Due to the large number of requests, I decided not to retire WP-Sticky and I have updated it to 1.40 and it is now compatible with WordPress 2.7.

Be sure to read the readme.html and checkout the changelog for more information and most importantly NOTE THE TABS AT THE TOP

Next you’ll begin to notice the new features subtly sprinkled through the new interface: the new dashboard that you can arrange with drag and drop to put the things most important to you on top, QuickPress, comment threading, paging, and the ability to reply to comments from your dashboard, the ability to install any plugin directly from WordPress.org with a single click, and sticky posts.

Digging in further you might notice that every screen is customizable. Let’s say you never care about author on your post listings — just click “Screen Options” and uncheck it and it’s instantly gone from the page. The same for any module on the dashboard or write screen. If your screen is narrow and the menu is taking up too much horizontal room, click the arrow to minimize it to be icon-only, and then go to the write page and drag and drop everything from the right column into the main one, so your posting area is full-screen. (For example I like hiding everything except categories, tags, and publish. I put categories and tags on the right, and publish under the post box.)

WordPress 2.7 also introduce the Automatic Core upgrade which unfortunately do not work for me. I am still very skeptical after automating web script upgrades. I prefer to do it the manual way so that I can control what I want.